World's Most Evil Killers - Season 2, Episode 18 - Jack Unterweger - Full Episode | Forensic Files

-In May 1990, a convicted killer was released from a prison in Austria, having only served 15 years and 4 months behind bars.
His name -- Jack Unterweger. -A brutal killer who is now going to embark on what I think is one of the most horrifying killing sprees
in modern European history. -A masterful manipulator, Unterweger was living the double life of a celebrated writer
and that of a serial killer. Once released from prison, he went on to kill nine women,
and was suspected of a further two in just over a year. -He possessed what one calls "the charm of a psychopath."
-The style was completely different. It was absolute brutality and bursts of violence.
-His victims all died in the same way, each strangled using the same knot. -You are face-to-face with them.
You are seeing the life drain out of them. You can choose to stop. You can choose to carry on.
-In public, he was the poster boy of prison reform in Austria, who transformed from murderer
to model citizen. But little did his supporters know that Jack Unterweger was leading a double life and was,
in fact, one of the world's most evil killers. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ In June 1976, 25-year-old Jack Unterweger
was found guilty by court in Salzburg, Austria, of the brutal murder of a young German woman.
Unterweger confessed. He was sentenced to life. However, Unterweger served just over 15 years.
He was released in May 1990, and only a few months later, prostitutes started to disappear.
For the next 10 months, Unterweger went on a killing spree across Austria, the former Czechoslovakia, and even the United States.
Unterweger was suspected of murdering 11 women, but was convicted of just nine. -I'm absolutely astounded at the fact that
Unterweger was released from prison many, many years before he should have been.
People like Unterweger can change. They can change in prison, if they acknowledge that what they've done is wrong,
and if they undertake work to address those traits and those behaviors that lead them
to the decision to harm others. But he didn't go through that process at all. -He was, without question,
perverted, depraved killing machine. And I can think of very few -- probably less than 20 --
who would deserve comparison with him. It's an extraordinary story, and one which sends a shiver
down my spine every time I tell it. -In 1975, during the trial of his first murder,
Unterweger was assessed by a psychiatrist. He was diagnosed as an extremely dangerous,
unpredictable, and incurable individual. The report stated he demonstrated egocentricity,
aggressiveness, and sexual perversion with a sadistic component. -Psychopaths are people who feel and behave
and relate to others in ways that are different from the rest of us. The way that I often describe psychopathy is,
it's a form of emotional emptiness. So, there aren't that complex range of emotions
that the rest of us have, like love and guilt and regret. It is quite black and white for psychopaths --
"I want this particular thing, and I'm going to not stop until I've got it." -Dr. Reinhard Haller is a leading psychiatrist
in Austria who worked on the case. Studying the first murder, it was clear to him
that Unterweger was an exceptionally callous killer. -[ Speaks native language ]
-[ Translated ] This was a highly sadistic murder, in which he abducted this girl who was walking home
on an extremely cold winter's night. He drove her, naked, through the forest, with a steel rod in his hand,
taking great delight in her impending death from exposure, but ultimately, strangled her with her bra.
It was an incredibly vicious, an incredibly sadistic moment. -[ Speaks native language ]
-The extraordinary story of this sadistic killer begins nearly 70 years ago. Johann "Jack" Unterweger was born on the 16th of August,
1950, in Judenburg in Styria, southern Austria. He was the illegitimate son of a waitress
and an American soldier who left before Jack was born. His mother spent short spells in jail,
and when Jack was 2 years old, he was placed into the care of his grandfather. According to Unterweger,
his childhood was far from ideal. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Jack Unterweger clearly had issues.
He grew up without a father. His mother, over the years, developed a serious alcohol problem.
Due to this, little Jack grew up in a hut in Carinthia with his grandfather, and was exposed to many things a child should not see.
-He's also learning things about women from his grandfather, who was a notorious philanderer.
He's learning that women are there to be used and abused and discarded. So, that's something that's ingrained in him
from quite an early age. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] He also saw his grandfather bringing his lovers,
or rather, prostitutes, to this hut again and again, and the 4-year-old boy witnessed their sexual activities
and much more. And so, there was this negative impact on his early years. -In 1958, Unterweger left his grandfather's home
and stayed with some relatives. Shortly after, he was placed in the foster-care system.
-He didn't form those attachments with his caregivers, those consistent attachments
that provide that secure environment in which children can grow up and feel safe and develop.
A child in this kind of situation, they become very, very focused on their own survival.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] He almost inevitably fell into this criminal role, and showed this type of behavior
from a very early age. He failed in his compulsory education, and he displayed delinquent behavior in his youth.
-In December 1974, now age 24, Unterweger's desires took a deadly turn. He was traveling with his girlfriend through Germany
when they drove past a friend of hers, 18-year-old Margaret Schafer. They stopped and robbed her,
driving to her parents' house to rob them, too. But the crimes didn't stop there.
Unterweger took the 18-year-old girl to a nearby wood and ordered her to undress.
He tied her up, beat her with a steel rod, and then strangled her with her own bra.
-So, he sees an opportunity here. He sees this woman walking, who his girlfriend knows.
There's an opportunity there. for him to have control over somebody, to manipulate them, and to do what he wants with them.
-The police questioned Unterweger's girlfriend, and she confessed that he had killed her friend.
Once in police custody, Unterweger also confessed to the killing, claiming he had a fit of rage.
On the 1st of June, 1976, before his 26th birthday, Unterweger began a life sentence for the murder,
but this was far from the end of his story. -From being what could only be described as a lowlife,
uneducated brute capable of killing an 18-year-old, he suddenly becomes a changed man.
He teaches himself to read and write properly, and he begins a very adventurous career
as a writer -- in fact, writes not one but two best sellers. He is very much the model prisoner.
-Now that he could read and write, Unterweger spent time in the prison library. He was uneducated, but with a large appetite for knowledge.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] One day, in the library, he came across a book
by an author completely unknown to him, and he says to himself, quite narcissistically,
"What he can do, I can do, too." And then, he began to write stories, and paradoxically, he wrote, among other things,
these episodes for a radio program which was very popular among children and families back then.
It was called "The Bedtime Program for Little Ones: The Little Sandman is Coming."
This was such a very idyllic, lovely, comforting, soporific program, which I also listened to as a child.
-Unterweger became famous as the man who wrote children's stories, poetry, and prose about life in prison.
His autobiography, "Fegefeuer," meaning "Purgatory," became a best seller, and was made into a film.
The Austrian literati were delighted to have discovered someone like Jack Unterweger.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Unterweger suddenly attracted the attention of the media.
People showed support for his release. These were people, some of whom were very well-known,
like journalists and artists, who showed their support for good reasons. Let's say they had good intention.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] The intellectuals said, "Wonderful. Finally, we have a criminal who reformed himself,
who, as it were, confessed to his actions through his writing and processed them therapeutically.
Such a person can only be a good person." And they fell for him. They really fell for him.
-Austria at the time was in the midst of reforming its prison services. Jack Unterweger's newly found literary prowess in prison
was just what the reformers needed to prove the new system could be successful. The calls for Unterweger's early release grew louder and louder.
Intellectuals, artists, writers, journalists, and even politicians campaigned for Unterweger to be free.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Now, there was unbelievable pressure
for his release at all costs, and that's what finally happened. However, there were voices who warned
that hiding behind this charming and manipulative man is a very dangerous, malicious narcissist.
-On the 23rd of May, 1990, 39-year-old Jack Unterweger was released from Stein Prison in Lower Austria.
He had only served a little over 15 years of his life sentence for strangling an 18-year-old to death.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] He was actually released without any safeguards.
That means he did not even have to go to see his probation officer, or to a psychiatrist, where he would have been treated further.
He was completely free. -A brutal killer who is now going to embark on what I think is one of the most horrifying killing sprees
in modern European history. -Unterweger was given a second chance as a free man, thanks to the campaigning
of Austria's artistic community to release him. Unterweger moved to Vienna, where he mingled with the rich and famous.
He played the role of the model rehabilitated prisoner. Unterweger had them all fooled.
-Obviously, the people who ran the prison wanted to advocate in their favor, because it's a great advertisement,
say, "See? The system works. We can put somebody who was as bad and as evil as a psychopath, who killed somebody in cold blood,
and this psychopath has rehabilitated in 15 years. He is now a writer, a person who is known by the people in Austria."
-So, he was the success story of the criminal-justice system, and I think we got too carried away
with that, and lost sight of the fact that this was an individual who had harmed someone else,
who had taken someone else's life. And that wasn't something that had been addressed,
so of course he was gonna do it again. -Unterweger was released from prison without the need
to regularly speak to a psychiatrist. There was no real supervision, and he was able to live the life of a free man.
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] He was very charming, quite intelligent,
but also a highly manipulative person who was not mentally ill, but had an abnormal personality.
-He moves to Vienna, becomes the darling of cafe society, buys a white Ford Mustang --
this is a man with some considerable vanity -- and turns himself into a famous guest,
part-time journalist, writer, television studios, radio talks, reads his poetry to adoring crowds --
many of them women -- and generally struts his stuff. -Unterweger became a celebrity,
and often appeared on television news programs. In 1990, he joined a panel with journalist Paul Yvon
to discuss prison reform. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] He was invited as, basically, an expert
to report on his experiences in the penitentiary. He happened to sit next to me in this club.
He appeared in a white suit. As far as I can remember, he had a bright red carnation,
I think, in the buttonhole. The normal reaction of a journalist is curiosity and interest.
What kind of guy, what kind of person, is he? -It's very easy for Unterweger to lead a double life
because he can very effectively compartmentalize parts of his life and his existence.
He's a very accomplished actor, at this point. He's playing this role of the reformed criminal,
of the man who's changed, and he's absolutely loving the spotlight that comes along with it. So, he wants that.
That narcissistic element of him wants that continued attention and this adoration.
-Unterweger also continued to write, and gave readings of his works, where he built up a large female fanbase.
-[ Translated ] He also showed up in various bars, where he always picked up women.
What's really impressive is the incredible number of women he had made contact with.
I believe he did not spend one night alone, and very few nights with the same woman.
-Despite his re-entering into society appearing a success to the outside world, Unterweger's dark instincts remained.
-A lot of people will come out of prison. They don't even have a job, and they'll have to struggle
probably for the rest of their lives. But he came out, and he had money, he had a job.
He already had a career pretty much set up. So, he had all the opportunity. But the problem with killers is that they can't curb the urge.
-He is a man who's positively bursting with self-importance and vanity, but he is also the same man who was cruel, manipulative,
and violent towards women from the age of 16 onwards. Nothing has changed. Only, this time, he chooses his targets carefully.
-In September 1990, just 4 months after his release from prison, Unterweger killed again,
and once more, he traveled abroad to find his victim -- this time, to the country formerly known
as "Czechoslovakia." She was the 29-year-old shop assistant in Prague, Blanka Bockova.
Her body was found on the banks of the Vltava River, lying on her back with her legs wide open
and covered with twigs and leaves., She had been strangled with a pair of stockings.
The last time she was seen alive was at a bar, talking to a well-dressed man around 40 years old.
This was just the beginning of Unterweger's undetected killing spree. -I can only imagine
that it must have emboldened him incredibly. I mean, he must have felt literally god-like.
"I can do whatever I want. I can dress them and undress them." This is a man who has contempt for women.
That's the only possible word for it -- utter contempt. and what's more, he intends to indulge himself
as long as he can get away with it -- and my goodness me, does he get away with it.
-A month after the murder in Prague in October 1990, Unterweger began a new killing spree,
murdering three women. The body of Brunhilde Masser was found naked in a forest near Graz, in Austria,
nearly 3 months after she disappeared. In December 1990, Heide Hammerer was killed in a forest
near Lustenau, close to the German border. Both women had been beaten and strangled with their tights.
March, 1991 -- Elfriede Schrempf disappeared near Graz. Her body was only found 7 months later.
-We're looking at somebody who strangled his victims, but then disposed of the bodies in the open air and forests.
And it was often a long time -- weeks or months -- before they were discovered. Obviously, the decomposition process,
the fact that animals have access to those bodies, will damage them. It will limit what the pathologists can say.
But quite often, the body is much better preserved than, necessarily, you would think at first glance,
and quite often, at least some information can be gleaned. If there was, say, bruising in the tissues of the neck
from a strangulation, it would still be relatively identifiable. In some cases, we could never say what happened.
In others, the evidence can still remain quite strong for prolonged periods. -When we look at the murders he commits
after he's left prison, they are much more meticulously planned. The first murder was very much an opportunity
which he took advantage of, and that the circumstances around that left an awful lot of evidence behind.
There was a witness. So, of course he was going to be convicted for that. So, when he comes out,
he's sure he's not gonna make those same mistakes again, and he's very careful. He plans.
He's incredibly organized. -Little is known about where exactly the victims died
and what happened to them before they died. Unterweger picked them up in his car,
and presumably drove them to an isolated area in a forest. Police have no leads to follow, until Unterweger attacked again.
But this time, his murderous plan failed. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] We do know a few things
because one of his victims survived. And from this evidence, it is quite clear that sexual acts were involved, too.
But in my opinion, these were not of prime importance. Of prime importance was the sadism --
that he wanted to torture the women, that he wanted to exercise power under all circumstances.
-All of Unterweger's victims shared a similar fate at the moment of their death. -If you look at the method
that he used for killing his victims, he strangled them. And that is the ultimate control method,
in terms of a way of killing somebody. You are face-to-face with them. You are seeing the life drain out of them.
You can choose to stop. You can choose to carry on. -Unterweger's victims were found naked or half naked,
lying facedown with their legs spread apart, and partly covered with twigs and leaves.
By now, this was an all-too-familiar M.O. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] We always see this practice
with serial killers. They perform almost ritualized killings, and at the end, they also have a funeral.
In his case, it consisted of covering half of the corpse, as was discovered with some of the skeletons.
-But no one suspected Unterweger of the killings. He was free to continue. -He's learned that women are there to be used and abused.
That's something that he's learned from an early age. He knows that that's wrong, but he chooses to do it anyway,
because he enjoys doing it. He likes to dominate others. He likes to have that feeling of power over other people,
because he has no compassion. He has no empathy for the suffering of others. He's an incredibly dangerous man.
-March, 1991 -- Unterweger was living the high life in Vienna's coffee-culture society.
He was a charming, wealthy, and influential poet, but he was also leading a double life.
Since leaving prison, he had killed at least four woman, and no one suspected a thing.
Up until this point, he traveled to commit the murders. But now, he turned his attention closer to home,
killing three prostitutes in Vienna. -It's an act of the most incredible arrogance.
Add vanity to arrogance, and you have a vision of Unterweger's view of himself. I mean, we are talking about a man, now,
who is on a spree -- full-out spree. He chooses wisely. He's clearly trolling red-light districts.
It's hard to miss Unterweger, because he's driving a white Ford Mustang, but no one puts two and two together.
-He's always had a sense of entitlement. He's always felt like he deserves better than other people.
But at the same time, he's also got those lessons that he's learned from his early years,
that women are there to be used and abused and discarded. So, women are the vehicle
through which he achieves the control that he craves. -A reporter claiming to be working
for the Austrian public broadcaster ORF was investigating the strange disappearance
of sex workers in Vienna for a radio program. His name -- Jack Unterweger. -[ Speaks native language ]
-[ Translated ] In Austria, there are naught point five to naught point seven killings of prostitutes per year,
and now, suddenly, there were seven of eight cases within a year. This was conspicuous.
And then, the top crime detective got a visit from a reporter named Jack Unterweger,
who was equipped with a microphone, and asked him, "There are so many prostitutes being killed in Austria.
The population is worried. That's a scandal. Why have the police not been more successful?"
And during one of these live interviews, this official told him, "Yes. We're checking up on all sexual murderers, including you."
-And he's loving every minute of this, because he knows that he's the one behind the murders that he's talking about,
and psychopaths enjoy playing with people. They enjoy kind of pressing their buttons,
and having a bit of fun, and knowing that they're the ones who've got this knowledge that other people don't.
So, he's, essentially -- He's having a good time. This is amusing for him. He's getting a lot of gratification out of it.
-Unterweger's radio program was a bold cover-up of his crimes. He also now had a reason to visit the red-light district,
explaining why his white Ford Mustang with the registration W JACK 1 was spotted,
and why he was seen talking to prostitutes. -It is the act of the most extraordinary vanity
and arrogance rolled into one. "Not only am I killing the prostitutes, now I'm reporting on the fact
that I've terrified the prostitutes in Vienna." It is...I mean, it is truly astonishing, absolutely --
and I use the word rarely. That is astonishing. -He might have done it just to tease the police.
Some serial killers, they do... The longer you go without having people after you,
people knocking on your door, the more cocky you get. -He's presenting himself as the champion
of these women's rights, as their defender, as somebody who really does genuinely care about them.
So, this is really, really chilling stuff. -Police in Vienna did have Unterweger on their list
of possible suspects, but they had no hard evidence. Unterweger often had an alibi
for the days on which the crimes happened. He'd either been to a reading, given a radio interview, or been with a girlfriend.
-Now, not everyone is completely convinced by Unterweger. Certainly one police officer
is beginning to see similarities with the crime that he was eventually convicted for --
the killing of the 18-year-old with a steel rod. In fact, that police officer also suspected
he may have killed once before. But those odd suspicions do not affect his celebrity in Vienna.
Indeed, he's so celebrated and so brazen, he gets commissioned to go to Los Angeles
to write a piece about prostitution. -In June 1991, Unterweger traveled to the US.
He stayed in the former Cecil Hotel in Downtown L.A. It had a reputation for violence and suicide at the time.
Unterweger was not the first serial killer to have stayed there. It was already famous as the hangout
of the Night Stalker, Richard Ramirez. Within a few weeks of landing, he had killed three women in Los Angeles,
all of them prostitutes. -And I think there was that sense in which he was getting a bit bored.
And often, you see this with psychopaths. They have that proneness to boredom, that need for stimulation.
So, they will often start to vary their offending behavior, to mix things up a bit, and to keep it interesting.
So, I think, potentially, that was what lay behind the decision to continue killing people outside of that country.
-All three murders were meticulously planned in advance. Unterweger's first L.A. victim was Shannon Exley,
a prostitute allegedly popular with truckers. Nine days later, he killed again --
Irene Rodriguez, originally from Texas. And 5 days after that, he killed Sherri Ann Long,
who was later found in the hills of Malibu. All three women were strangled with a bra
using the same very distinct knot, a signature. -Some people use a certain method.
For example, with strangulation, that would be the M.O. -- the modus operandi --
but if they use a strangulation with a cord, then, the cord would be the signature.
In his case, I don't think he used a bra of the girls a lot of the time, but he did a specific knot.
I don't think he did the knot because Unterweger wanted people to know it was him.
He did the knot because he knew the knot worked, and it's the same thing that happens
with so many serial killers -- they use a method or a signature because they know it works.
-Unterweger left L.A. and returned home to Vienna before detectives could link him to the murders.
But while he was away, the police in Vienna were now working closely with their counterparts in Graz,
the site of the murders after he was released from prison. They realize the murders were, in fact, linked.
A pattern started emerging with Unterweger being in the same area of Austria that the murders were committed.
The police realized they were now dealing with a serial killer. On the 13th of February, 1992, 1 year and 9 months
after he was released from prison, an arrest warrant was issued by the Graz judiciary.
Unterweger had fled with his girlfriend, this time to Miami. But his escape didn't last long.
-He's finally tracked down to Florida in the United States because the authorities had begun
to put various parts of the puzzle together. And he's arrested and extradited in May 1992
to stand trial in Austria. -When he talks to the television camera, and he says,
"I've only had 2 years of freedom," and he appears to be quite upset, we shouldn't be fooled by that.
The only person that he feels sorry for is himself. And this is a skilled manipulator.
This is somebody who's learned, by observing the behavior of other people, what kind of emotions
he can display that will elicit some kind of sympathy. -During the extradition process,
Detective Ernst Geiger from the Vienna Police Department discovered further links to prove Unterweger's guilt.
He'd searched Unterweger's home, and found evidence of his visit to L.A. So, he contacted the L.A. Police Department,
and discovered the three similar murders in their district. The evidence found at Unterweger's home
placed him in the areas of each crime scene. The detective expanded his search across Europe,
asking if there were any other unresolved murders with the same M.O. Prague police replied with the case of Blanka Bockova.
She was the first woman Unterweger killed after his release from jail. The case was building,
and Unterweger was charged with the murders of 11 women. On the 28th of May, 1992,
Unterweger was extradited from the U.S. to Austria. The minor celebrity and poster boy of prison reform
was again in police custody. -It's not often that you get a killer who was that well-known to a society.
And in his case, it's very interesting to me that he killed. Then, he went to prison.
Then, he came out early, with a brand-new profession, and with an amazing chance of just carrying on
with a brand-new life 10 times better than the life he had before. It just goes to show that the hate he had inside him
towards women was so intense that nothing would stop him. -Unterweger's trial began on the 20th of April, 1994,
at the courthouse in Graz. Many of his friends from Vienna still believed in Unterweger's innocence,
but the prosecution had gathered strong evidence against him -- including, for the first time in an Austrian murder case, DNA.
The event attracted an enormous amount of media attention. -[ Speaks native language ]
-[ Translated ] You had to register, which was something completely new back then,
having to register as a journalist in a public proceeding. This big group of his supporters,
his fans -- even the female ones -- they were already nowhere to be seen or heard...
...because during the long pre-trial process, many details had come to light which made it so clear...
...he was as guilty as sin. -Unterweger was defended by two lawyers during what was a complicated and lengthy trial.
One of them was Graz-based Dr. Hans-Jurgen Lehofer. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Every single victim,
every single murder, had been examined. The whole thing took 3 months. With many of the victims, it was no longer possible
to establish how the women died, how they were murdered... ...because sometimes, only the skeleton was left,
as the bodies had been in the forest. -The court was shown photographs of the first woman
he killed after his release, Blanka Bockova. She was murdered in September 1990 in Prague.
The shocking images left a deep impression on everyone in the courtroom, but not on Unterweger.
-[ Speaks native language ] -The judge then asked, "Are there any questions?" And Unterweger tells me, quite excitedly,
"Go on. Ask him something. Ask already." Obviously, he was not affected by the image of this naked girl,
the corpse, and this person who was strangled, whose facial expressions are not pretty.
He kept telling me to ask, ask, ask. I didn't know what to ask. I wasn't able to ask, but he didn't care.
"Go on. Ask. Ask. Ask." -For two of the murders, the prosecution presented DNA evidence.
A hair belonging to victim Blanka Bockova had been found in Unterweger's car, and red fibers found on another victim's body
corresponded to a red scarf found in Unterweger's home. When Unterweger was first asked by police
about his whereabouts in Prague, unaware of possible DNA evidence, he answered that he had been to the city,
but that he hadn't picked up anyone. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated If he had said, "I met a girl there,
took her to my car, and we did things together... ...going for a ride, drinking a beer, or something"...
...then it would have been possible to explain why a girl's hair was in his car.
But because he said, "I never took a girl in my car in Prague"... ...now, the question was, how did Bockova's hair
get into the car of Jack Unterweger? This practically sealed the chain of evidence.
-Another key piece of evidence was Unterweger's modus operandi. He strangled his victims, always using the same kind of knot.
Austrian police got in touch with the FBI in the U.S. and asked if there was a way to analyze this specific knot.
An American specialist had the answers they needed. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Boa came to Graz
for the trial of Jack Unterweger. She was asked for her opinion on the knots. She said, "I'll tell you the same thing
I told the Austrian investigators at the time -- if you find the person who tied one of these knots,
then you've undoubtedly found the one who tied all these knots. This is a very special knot."
-[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] I can remember how this American woman
had the original bra in her hand, and showed it to the jury. You could see how tightly the neck
was constricted by the knot. And I think that was the turning point in the process.
That's when I could really notice it. One had to imagine that the victims' neck was compressed to this diameter.
-[ Translated ] That was a moment when it was dead quiet in the overcrowded courtroom,
even though there were hundreds of people in there. And Jack Unterweger, who has always had such a particularly straight,
present, slightly dominant posture, and who always looked with a certain, I would say, impudence, as if to say,
"Look, I have nothing to hide." -The horror of the jury when they saw this bra could really be felt physically,
and that was also the turning point when the mood turned against Unterweger. -[ Translated ] That was the moment when you could see it
in his body language. He slipped back into his seat, and grew smaller and smaller.
His color drained, and then, he just sat there. I was thinking, "Now, that was the moment.
This is it. The hunt is over." -But Unterweger stood by his innocence to the very end.
The Austrian jury consisted of eight members. If the verdict is at least four against four,
the accused goes free. Throughout the trial, Unterweger regularly talked to Dr. Haller in his prison cell.
He would discuss how he thought the jury was reacting on each day. -[ Speaks native language ]
-[ Translated ] He closely monitored the eight jurors during the trial. He always knew who was skeptical, who were against him,
who were for him. And he told me every day after the trial, "Today, four were for me and four against me.
Today, three were skeptical," and so on. -People like Unterweger are incredibly intelligent,
and they will pick up on other people's emotions, other people's feelings. Even though they don't have that complexity of emotion
themselves, they learn through observing other people the kind of behaviors that they need to display, the sorts of things
that they need to say to get what they want. -Absolutely certain he was confident in his own mind
that he could convince at least four of them that he was innocent. Unterweger is so confident that he decides
that he will give the final speech in his defense. -[ Speaks native language ] -[ Translated ] Unterweger then delivered, in my opinion,
a brilliant concluding speech in his defense. And the jury vote was never eight to zero for guilty.
Rather, it was always only five to three or six to two. So, there were always a few jurors
who were still convinced of Unterweger's innocence. -But Unterweger's impassioned speech
did not sway the jury on all charges. On the 28th of June, 1994, at approximately 9:00 p.m.,
the verdict was read out. He was found guilty of 9 of the 11 murder charges against him, and sentenced to life in prison.
He placed an appeal against the verdict. Unterweger then returned to his cell, where, 6 hours later, he hanged himself with a string
from his jogging bottoms and his shoelaces. It was confirmed that the knot he used to tie the noose
was the same he'd used to strangle his victims. -Well, Unterweger was a cold and calculating and ruthless
psychopath who enjoyed harming other people. And I think that the real shame with this case
is that the Austrian criminal justice-system completely missed its opportunity to put the brakes on his offending
because they became too dazzled with the individual that he was presenting as, and far too many people were conned by him.
-He's one of those people who really does send a shiver down my spine, because he would appear to be so charming.
And I'm not surprised that prostitutes got into the car with him, or some may even have recognized him.
But he knew they were never going to live to tell the tale, so he saw no worry in that. The ultimate killing machine.
-Jack Unterweger was a sadistic murderer who killed women for his own gratification.
His double life and charming character enabled him to continue with his killing spree undetected.
Society wanted to believe he was a reformed man, but sadly, that was not the case.
Unterweger fooled them all, and was, without a doubt, one of the world's most evil killers.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪

In May 1990, convicted killer Jack Unterweger was freed from prison. He became a celebrated writer and a prison reform advocate in Austria until it was discovered that he killed nine more women.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Jack Unterweger, a released killer, became a celebrated writer while murdering nine women, exposing flaws in the justice system.

Key points

The Double Life of Unterweger. Once released, Unterweger led a double life as a celebrated writer and a serial killer.
The Horrifying Killing Spree. After his release, Unterweger killed nine women in just over a year.
Psychopathy Explained. Psychopaths lack complex emotions and have a black-and-white view of their desires.
Jack Unterweger's Release. In May 1990, convicted killer Jack Unterweger was released after serving just over 15 years.
The Arrogance of a Killer. Unterweger's arrogance led him to commit murders in plain sight after his release.
Jack Unterweger's Deception. Jack Unterweger, a celebrated figure, manipulated his way into the media spotlight while committing heinous crimes.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

He was, without question, a perverted, depraved killing machine.

A stark description of Unterweger's nature.

3:02WatchJul 20, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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